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Figure skating competition 2012 - 2013 will be coming soon !


This season’s figure skating competition sounds interesting !

I haven’t been watching most of skating competitions since last Olympics ( Vancouver Olympics 2010 ), only US Nationals and a few skaters , but always checked the results for all the senior events for men and ladies.

But it’s excited to know that some skaters who were taking breaks are returning to competitions this season such as Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek ( both took breaks since last Olympics ) and also Evgeny Plushenko. For ladies, Miki Ando and Yu na Kim.

Things are changing every season, I wonder how they will compete with present top skaters.

I started watching men’s skating since 2006 Torino Olympics and I still love those days top skaters especially the ones who skated in the finale group in the free program. ( Evgeny Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, Johnny Weir, Jeffrey Buttle, Brian Joubert, Daisuke Takahashi )

I was shocked to see these charismatic unique skaters in the men’s skating world, I didn’t know there is such a wonderful world in Olympics sports ! 

These skaters plus Emanuel Sandhu are still my all time favorite men’s skaters even though some of them already retired.

We were re-watching the Torino Olympics men’s finale group and also World championships 2006 last night.

We watched the recording tape since 2006 so many times.

And while watching the recording tape for world championships 2006 which was held in Calgary in Canada, there was Brian Boitano and Brian Orser’s interview about their past world championships competition which was also held in Canada, called the “ Battle of the Brians “.

Brian Botaino was saying about that competition,

 “ the Canadian audience was expecting Brian Orser to win. Figure skating is political so it was his turn to get the medal, and I was not supposed to win this competition.” 

Brian Botaino skated clean, and Brian Orser had one very minor mistake but not so big deal as to not win the competition.

 In most competitions, whichever skater’s “turn” it is, whoever is favored for political reasons, wins, and so Boitano said “ it was miracle I won it.”

He is calmly understanding that figure skating competition is a political game.

I wonder how many skaters are understanding it and compete, even while knowing it ?

Since Vancouver Olympics, it was all cleared it up for me, so I don’t watch figure skating competition like before anymore, and won’t take it seriously.
It’s a game.

　
Johnny Weir - Anyone who has ever read my past posts can see I was a fanatic fan of Johnny Weir’s skating. He is still my top favorite skater.

I love his beautiful artistry , the way he moves on ice and his expression and emotion. I often thought depending on his program music, choreography, costume ( plus hairstyle ), he can show killer performance.

He was doing Quad -Triple- double combination jumps effortlessly around 2005 - 2006 during the practice.

His performances of programs like Otonal and Ex number My Way were the ones which made me his fan.

No one was talking about “ transitions “ at that time, which is one of the Presentation elements .

And I noticed that his programs had transitions naturally, the whole thing was a story-telling program all through while he was working with his previous coach Priscilla Hill .

There were programs I liked after Johnny started working with coach Galina since 2007 - 2008 season. 

While I think his movements got even more detailed and perhaps even improved some sensitivity, and his footwork improved, overall I liked his jumps quality ( his jumps seemed more natural and flowing) and his style more when he was working with Pricilla Hill and also liked his programs more, there was no empty part and it was more story telling naturally.

I love his skating, but not crazy for Galina’s programs, so my feeling is complicated. Her costume tastes for him has been good though.

His short Program for this season I’ve heard seems to be Lady Ga Ga’s Poker Face. I’m not sure for his Free Program music.

I wish him all the best. I respect his braveness he took returning to competition. And I will enjoy his beautiful skating. He makes competition interesting.

　
Daisuke Takahashi - Morozov asked Daisuke Takahashi to come back to work with him and they started working together and I’m also curious.

I’ve heard that Daisuke’s long program theme is to act the part of a clown. He can be a great actor on ice with his natural dynamic artistry.

Personally, I want him to skate with “ Symphony No. 25 in G minor “ by Mozart.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony No.25 in G minor

 I can’t think of any other skater who can handle this music, or who would fit better with this music . 

It requires super speedy, complicated step sequences, with dynamic artistic moves, who can naturally express it with body language and emotion, with great choreography which has drama ( Kenji Miyamoto ).

This music has huge impact so I suppose Judges would love this music.

It would be great if Daisuke skates with this music in Olympics season !

Now a days, its almost like quad jumps are required element in men’s skating competitions. If skaters have no quad, then forget about to get gold (?) . 

Things changed after last Olympics.

Johnny Weir, Daisuke Takahashi, Evgeny Plushenko, Brian Joubert are all my favorite skaters, and always interesting to watch.

Also very curious to see how Evan Lysacek will compete with Plushenko, Patrick Chan, Daisuke Takahashi in Worlds ( I ‘m guessing he will get the free pass to worlds ) and also in US Nationals, the fight between Johnny Weir vs. Evan Lysacek vs. Jeremy Abbott.

Yuzuru Hanyu may be Daisuke’s biggest rival in Japanese skaters now . Yuzuru beat Daisuke in Free Program last World Championships ( but overall total, Daisuke placed above because of his high SP score with awesome performance .)

I love Yuzuru’s technical part of his skating, such as triple axel jump and quad jump, and spins.  Artistically, his movements remind me of Johnny’s, when Johnny was a junior skater. 

Yuzuru is still young, so he has a lot of potential to improve his artistry in the future.

Patrick Chan’s quad jumps are getting more and more consistent every event. He has three quads. One for SP and two for FP. 

His program looks difficult. He has been judge’s favorite especially his presentation marks. Mechanical movements, but suits with COP system which is not necessary to have natural artistic movements and emotion.

I’m pretty sure he is the number one favorite to win Next Olympics gold medal. Two falls or three falls are not big problem with judges, when it comes to him to win.

I still can not figure out why he is getting such high Presentation scores with a lot of falls. But his mind-setting must be super strong. 

He made this reality happen. Whether audience booed or criticized him, he is not influenced by it, and having strong confidence.

Plushenko and Patrick Chan’s minds are very strong. Lysacek may be strong as well when it comes to world competition.


For ladies,

I’m not sure what Miki Ando has decided , since I haven’t heard she has a new coach after she left from her previous coach Morozov.

But if she will really compete this season, it will be interesting to watch her program which was choreographed by Stephane Lambiel.

But wonder, is she still without a coach ??

I’m also curious Yu na Kim’s Vampire & Le Miserable programs. Seems like she will only compete in World Championships same as 2 years ago.


Here are the entries, skater’s lists and schedule for the events I’m interested in.


Japan Open - October 6 ( at 7pm )

Japan - Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, Mao Asada, Akiko Suzuki

North America - Patrick Chan, Jeffrey Buttle, Ashley Wagner, Agnes Zawadjki

Europe - Evgeny Plushenko, Michal Brezina, Alena Leonova, Elene Gedevanishvili



　
Finlandia Trophy 2012 - October 5 to 7

MEN

Samuel Koppel EST
Matthias Versluis FIN
Viktor Zubik FIN
Valtter Virtanen FIN
Julian Lagus FIN
Paolo Bacchini ITA
Yuzuru Hanyu JPN
Kenta Nakamura JPN
Maciej Cieplucha POL
Zhan Bush RUS
Javier Fernandez ESP
Javier Raya ESP
Adrian Schultheiss SWE
Mikael Redin SUI
Ricky Dornbush USA
Johnny Weir USA
Misha Ge UZB

LADIES

Ira Vannut BEL
Jasmine Costa EST
Kiira Korpi FIN
Juulia Turkkila FIN
Alisa Mikonsaari FIN
Beata Papp FIN
Fleur Maxwell LUX
Yulia Lipnitskaya RUS
Sonia Lafuente ESP
Isabelle Olsson SWE
Natalia Popova UKR
Mirai Nagasu USA


　
Grand Prix Events

Skate America - October 19 - 21 ( Seattle, WA, USA )

MEN

Michal BREZINA CZE
Tomas VERNER CZE
Yuzuru HANYU JPN
Takahiko KOZUKA JPN
Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN
Konstantin MENSHOV RUS
Alexander MAJOROV SWE
Jeremy ABBOT USA
Evan LYSACEK USA
Douglas RAZZANO USA

LADIES

Mae Berenice MEITE FRA
Sarah HECKEN GER
Valentina MARCHEI ITA
Haruka IMAI JPN
Alena LEONOVA RUS
Adelina SOTNIKOVA RUS
Viktoria HELGESSON SWE
Rachael FLATT USA
Christina GAO USA
Ashley WAGNER USA
 

 　
Skate Canada - October 26 - 28 ( Windsor, Ontario, Canada )

Men

Patrick Chan CAN
Elladj BALDE CAN
Liam FIRUS CAN
Florent AMODIO FRA
Takahito MURA JPN
Nobunari ODA JPN
Denis TEN KAZ
Artur GACHINSKI RUS
Javier FERNANDEZ ESP
Ross MINER USA

Ladies

Amelie LACOSTE CAN
Kaetlyn OSMOND CAN
Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO
Kanako MURAKAMI JPN
Akiko SUZUKI JPN
Ksenia MAKAROVA RUS
Polina SHELEPEN RUS
Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA RUS
Gracie GOLD USA
Caroline ZHANG USA

　
 
Cup of China - November 2 - 4 ( Shanghai, China )

Men

Kevin REYNOLDS CAN
Jinlin GUAN CHN
Nan SONG CHN
Yi Wang CHN
Brian JOUBERT FRA
Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN
Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN
Artur DMITRIEV RUS
Sergei VORONOV RUS
Adam RIPPON USA
　
Ladies

Bingwa GENG CHN
Zijun LI CHN
Kexin ZHANG CHN
Kiira KORPI FIN
Yretha SILETE FRA
Miki Ando JPN
Mao Asada JPN
Julia LIPNITSKAIA RUS
Joshi HELGESSON SWE
Mirai Nagasu JPN



Rostelecom Cup 2012 - November 9 - 11 ( Moscow, Russia )

Men

Patrick Chan CAN
Michal BREZINA CZE
Takahiko Kozuka JPN
Nobunari Oda JPN
Denis Ten KAZ
Zhan BUSH RUS
Artur GACHINSKI RUS
Konstantin MENSHOV RUS
Richard DORNBUSH USA
Johnny Weir USA

Ladies

Kiira KORPI FIN
Valentina MARCHEI ITA
Kanako MURAKAMI JPN
Polina KOROBEYNIKOVA RUS
Alena LEONOVA RUS
Adelina SOTNIKOVA RUS
Viktoria HELGESSON SWE
Gracie GOLD USA
Agnes ZAWADZKI USA
Caroline ZHANG USA
 


Trophee Eric Bompard - November 16 - 18 ( Paris, France )

Men

Jorik HENDRICKX BEL
Jinlin GUAN CHN
Nan SONG CHN
Tomas VERNER CZE
Florent AMODIO FRA
Brian JOUBERT FRA
Romain PONSART FRA
Takahito MURA JPN
Jeremy ABBOTT USA
Johnny Weir USA

Ladies

Kexin ZHANG CHN
Lena MARROCCO FRA
Mae Berenice MEITE FRA
Yretha SILETE FRA
Miki Ando JPN
Polina KOROBEYNIKOVA RUS
Julia LIPNITSKAIA RUS
Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA RUS
Christina GAO USA
Ashley WAGNER USA



NHK Trophy - November 23 - 25 ( Miyagi, Japan )

Men

Kevin REYNOLDS CAN
Andrei ROGOZINE CAN
Yuzuru HANYU JPN
Daisuke MURAKAMI JPN
Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN
Sergei VORONOV RUS
Javier FERNANDEZ ESP
Richard DORNBUSH USA
Ross MINER USA
Adam RIPPON USA

Ladies

Zijun LI CHN
Elene GEDEVANISHVILI GEO
Mao ASADA JPN
Haruka IMAI JPN
Akiko SUZUKI JPN
Sofia BIRYUKOVA RUS
Ksenia MAKAROVA RUS
Polina SHELEPEN RUS
Alissa CZISNY USA
Agnes ZAWADZKI USA


Grand Prix Finale - December 6 - 9 ( Sochi, Russia )
　
　
Japanese Nationals - Dec 20-24, 2012 ( Sapporo, Japan )

Russian Nationals - Dec 24-28, 2012 ( Sochi, Russia )

Canadian Nationals - Jan 13-20, 2013 ( Mississauga, Ontario, Canada )

US Nationals - Jan 20-27, 2013 ( Omaha, Nebraska )

European Championships - Jan 21-27, 2013 ( Zagreb, Croatia )

Four Continents - Feb 6-11, 2013 ( Osaka, Japan )

World Figure skating Championships - March 10-17, 2013 ( London, Ontario )
　
　

　
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